Why A Modest FWD Hatchback Is Often More Fun Than A RWD V8

Last Sunday was one of those days that most of you might be familiar with; I was on my sofa, watching something completely nondescript (X Factor, Everyone Loves Raymond, Frasier etc) while slow-roasting my manhood with an ancient Mac. Lethargy had me in her warm and cruel embrace, at which point I knew that I needed to do something constructive. The only answer, on a beautifully autumnal day like this, was to wash our Seat Ibiza FR longtermer and go for a proper drive (something that staff-writer Matt did recently in a Subaru BRZ).

With the car bathed and looking fresh, I called fellow CTer Gabor to see if he’d like to help me stretch the Ibiza’s surprisingly leggy 1.4-litre engine. Without hesitation, he was on my doorstep, after which the hunt was on to find a stretch of road that would do us proud. After 20 minutes of driving to one of the most north-westerly points of London, we found our road. Better yet, it had been re-tarmaced very recently.

National speed limit signs came and went and the Ibiza was knocked into second gear and left there until the revs met the limit. Corners whooshed by, engine noise filled the cabin, brakes were pushed hard and tyres squealed; as a petrolhead, this was my idea of fun and the perfect way to spend a lazy Sunday while fellow Brits sat in front of the box eating their Sunday lunches. Gabor, on the other hand, was spending his time ‘testing’ the Ibiza’s grab handles - he’s a bit of a control freak, and as it turns out a more nervous passenger than CT producer Ethan (this takes some doing).

What made the experience such good fun - apart from the amazing road and Gabor’s hilarious incompetence at being a composed passenger - was the car. Now I’m all for RWD, V6s and V8s, but on a day like today, with sweeping corners and challenging crests, I’d not have been able to push anything rear-driven to its limits.

No, what I needed was something lightweight, front-wheel drive, pokey enough to be fun but not so fast that I could mess up, and something that I could drive on its limit, with tyre squeal, body roll and understeer.

That’s where the Ibiza FR excels; while it may only have 138bhp, its chassis is playful, assured and, importantly, very predictable.

And that’s the beauty of small warm hatches like the Ibiza - they’re huge amounts of fun when you drive them by the scruff of their necks and they’ll very rarely bite back. Treat a powerful RWD car in the same way as you can a FWD warm hatch on the same stretch of road, and it’s the latter car you’ll have more fun in. Unless, of course, you’re familiar with snap-oversteer and you know that there’s nothing coming the other way…which, if we’re honest, is never.